Neurosciences Commons^™

Depressogenic Self-Schemas Are Associated With Smaller Regional Grey Matter Volume In Never-Depressed Preadolescents, Pan Liu, Matthew R.J. Vandemeer, Marc F. Joanisse, Deanna M. Barch, David J.A. Dozois, Elizabeth P. Hayden

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 The Author(s) Self-referential processing (i.e., self-schemas that guide processing of self-descriptive information) emerges early in youth, with deeper encoding of negative self-descriptors and/or shallower encoding of positive self-descriptors causally linked to depression. However, the relationship between depressogenic self-schemas and brain structure is unclear. We investigated associations between self-schemas and regional grey matter volume (GMV) in 84 never-depressed preadolescents oversampled for depression risk based on maternal depression history. Self-schemas were assessed using a Self-Referent Encoding Task (SRET) and regional GMV was indexed via voxel-based morphometry analysis of structural magnetic resonance imaging data. Youths’ positive self-schemas were associated with greater …

Orbitofrontal Cortex Grey Matter Volume Is Related To Children's Depressive Symptoms, Matthew R.J. Vandermeer, Pan Liu, Ola Mohamed Ali, Andrew R. Daoust, Marc F. Joanisse, Deanna M. Barch, Elizabeth P. Hayden

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 The Author(s) Adults with a history of depression show distinct patterns of grey matter volume (GMV) in frontal cortical (e.g., prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex) and limbic (e.g., anterior cingulate, amygdala, hippocampus, dorsal striatum) structures, regions relevant to the processing and regulation of reward, which is impaired in the context of depression. However, it is unclear whether these GMV associations with depression precede depressive disorder onset or whether GMV is related to early emerging symptoms or familial depression. To address these questions, we used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to examine GMV in 85 community-dwelling children (M = 11.12 years, SD …

Language Dominance Modulates The Perception Of Spanish Approximants In Late Bilinguals, Martha Black, Marc F. Joanisse, Yasaman Rafat

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 by the authors. The ability to discriminate phonetically similar first language (L1) and second language (L2) sounds has significant consequences for achieving target-like proficiency in second-language learners. This study examines the L2 perception of Spanish approximants [Β, δ, γ] in comparison with their voiced stop counterparts [b, d, g] by adult English-Spanish bilinguals. Of interest is how perceptual effects are modulated by factors related to language dominance, including proficiency, language history, attitudes, and L1/L2 use, as measured by the Bilingual Language Profile questionnaire. Perception of target phones was assessed in adult native Spanish speakers (n = 10) and …

Absorption And Enjoyment During Listening To Acoustically Masked Stories, Björn Herrmann, Ingrid S. Johnsrude

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© The Author(s) 2020. Comprehension of speech masked by background sound requires increased cognitive processing, which makes listening effortful. Research in hearing has focused on such challenging listening experiences, in part because they are thought to contribute to social withdrawal in people with hearing impairment. Research has focused less on positive listening experiences, such as enjoyment, despite their potential importance in motivating effortful listening. Moreover, the artificial speech materials—such as disconnected, brief sentences—commonly used to investigate speech intelligibility and listening effort may be ill-suited to capture positive experiences when listening is challenging. Here, we investigate how listening to naturalistic spoken …

Speech Spoken By Familiar People Is More Resistant To Interference By Linguistically Similar Speech, Emma Holmes, Ingrid S. Johnsrude

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 American Psychological Association. Understanding speech in adverse conditions is affected by experience-a familiar voice is substantially more intelligible than an unfamiliar voice when competing speech is present, even if the content of the speech (the words) are controlled. This familiar-voice benefit is observed consistently, but its underpinnings are unclear: Do familiar voices simply attract more attention, are they inherently more intelligible because they have predictable acoustic characteristics, or are they more intelligible in a mixture because they are more resistant to interference from other sounds? We recruited pairs of native English-speaking participants who were friends or romantic couples. …

Pupil Dilation Is Sensitive To Semantic Ambiguity And Acoustic Degradation, Mason Kadem, Björn Herrmann, Jennifer M. Rodd, Ingrid S. Johnsrude

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© The Author(s) 2020. Speech comprehension is challenged by background noise, acoustic interference, and linguistic factors, such as the presence of words with more than one meaning (homonyms and homophones). Previous work suggests that homophony in spoken language increases cognitive demand. Here, we measured pupil dilation—a physiological index of cognitive demand—while listeners heard high-ambiguity sentences, containing words with more than one meaning, or well-matched low-ambiguity sentences without ambiguous words. This semantic-ambiguity manipulation was crossed with an acoustic manipulation in two experiments. In Experiment 1, sentences were masked with 30-talker babble at 0 and +6 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and in …

Social Symptoms Of Parkinson's Disease, Margaret T.M. Prenger, Racheal Madray, Kathryne Van Hedger, Mimma Anello, Penny A. Macdonald

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

© 2020 Margaret T. M. Prenger et al. Parkinson's disease (PD) is typically well recognized by its characteristic motor symptoms (e.g., bradykinesia, rigidity, and tremor). The cognitive symptoms of PD are increasingly being acknowledged by clinicians and researchers alike. However, PD also involves a host of emotional and communicative changes which can cause major disruptions to social functioning. These incude problems producing emotional facial expressions (i.e., facial masking) and emotional speech (i.e., dysarthria), as well as difficulties recognizing the verbal and nonverbal emotional cues of others. These social symptoms of PD can result in severe negative social consequences, including stigma, …

Deviant Cortical Sulcation Related To Schizophrenia And Cognitive Deficits In The Second Trimester, Michael Lloyd Mackinley, Priyadharshini Sabesan, Lena Palaniyappan

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Aberrant cortical development, inferred from cortical folding, is linked to the risk of schizophrenia. Cortical folds develop in a time-locked fashion during fetal growth. We leveraged this temporal specificity of sulcation to investigate the timing of the prenatal insult linked to schizophrenia and the cognitive impairment seen in this illness. Anatomical MRI scans from 68 patients with schizophrenia and 72 controls were used to evaluate the sulcal depth of five major invariable primary sulci representing lobar development (calcarine sulcus, superior temporal sulcus, superior frontal sulcus, intraparietal sulcus and inferior frontal sulcus) with formation representing the distinct developmental periods. A repeated-measure …

Quality And Clinical Care Development In Spine Surgery-Connecting The Dots: An Expanded Clinical Narrative., Sarah Hopkins, Polly Brune, Jens R Chapman, Marc Horton, Rod J Oskouian, Akshal Patel, Marc D Moisi

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Our health care system is an evidenced-based quality-centric environment. Pursuit of quality is a process that encompasses knowledge development and care advancements through collaboration and expertise. Depicted here is the foundational knowledge, process, and contributions that hallmark successful clinical quality programs. Beginning with methodology, followed by process and form, we create the foundational knowledge and exemplars demonstrating framework and continuum of process in pursuit and attainment of successful clinical quality and care development for patients. Although our protocol has been devised for complex spine care, this could be implemented across all health care specialties to provide individualized and high-quality care …

Age Differences In Hippocampal Glutamate Modulation During Associative Learning And Memory: A Proton Functional Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1h Fmrs) Study, Chaitali Anand

Wayne State University Dissertations

Episodic and associative memory decline is one of the earliest cognitive impairments in normal aging and among the defining cognitive features of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Since, age-related cognitive decline gradually devolves into AD, with neuropathology preceding cognitive changes by many years, the identification of biomarkers of early disease progression is crucial. Reduction in glutamate, the main excitatory neurotransmitter involved in associative memory, in key brain regions such as the hippocampus, has been theorized as one of the cellular mechanisms underlying cognitive decline in aging and AD. A few neuroimaging studies that demonstrated a link between older adults’ weaker cognitive performance …

Resting-State Static And Dynamic Functional Abnormalities In Active Professional Fighters With Repetitive Head Trauma And With Neuropsychological Impairments., Xiaowei Zhuang, Virendra Mishra, Rajesh Nandy, Zhengshi Yang, Karthik Sreenivasan, Lauren Bennett, Charles Bernick, Dietmar Cordes

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Previous neuroimaging studies have identified structural brain abnormalities in active professional fighters with repetitive head trauma and correlated these changes with fighters' neuropsychological impairments. However, functional brain changes in these fighters derived using neuroimaging techniques remain unclear. In this study, both static and dynamic functional connectivity alterations were investigated (1) between healthy normal control subjects (NC) and fighters and (2) between non-impaired and impaired fighters. Resting-state fMRI data were collected on 35 NC and 133 active professional fighters, including 68 impaired fighters and 65 non-impaired fighters, from the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study at our center. Impaired fighters performed worse …

Foraminal Ligaments Tether Upper Cervical Nerve Roots: A Potential Cause Of Postoperative C5 Palsy., Andrew Jack, Brooks R Osburn, Zane Tymchak, Wyatt L Ramey, Rod J Oskouian, Robert A Hart, Jens R Chapman, Line G Jacques, R Shane Tubbs

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Background Nerve root tethering upon dorsal spinal cord (SC) migration has been proposed as a potential mechanism for postoperative C5 palsy (C5P). To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate this relationship by anatomically comparing C5-C6 nerve root translation before and after root untethering by cutting the cervical foraminal ligaments (FL). Objective The aim of this study is to determine if C5 root untethering through FL cutting results in increased root translation. Methods Six cadaveric dissections were performed. Nerve roots were exposed via C4-C6 corpectomies and supraclavicular brachial plexus exposure. Pins were inserted into the C5-C6 roots and …

Tulip-Screw Head Disjunction From Posterior C2 Fracture Fixation Instrumentation., Halle E K Burley, Darius S Ansari, Alexander Von Glinski, Ryan Goodmanson, Benjamin A Schell, Jens R Chapman, Rod J Oskouian

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

This report presents an unusual case of instrumentation failure after posterior fixation of a C2 fracture and reviews currently available treatment alternatives. The patient, a 53-year-old female, initially presented to the emergency department at an outside facility with acute alcohol intoxication and acute neck pain following a fall from a ladder. CT demonstrated bilateral C2 pars fractures and unstable posteroinferior displacement of the posterior elements. She underwent an emergent C2 open-reduction internal fixation (ORIF) at the outside facility with 3.5 mm polyaxial synapse pedicle screws (DePuy Synthes, Switzerland). There were no known complications and the patient was discharged. Two years …

Will "Social Distancing" Lead To Future "Research Distancing": A Reflection On Covid-19 Impacts On Alzheimer's Disease Research, Shoshana H. Bardach, Allison K. Gibson, Elizabeth K. Rhodus, Gregory A. Jicha

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has dramatically altered everyday life, including the field of Alzheimer's disease (AD) research. This perspective article explores some of the ways in which COVID-19 has already impacted the field, anticipates some of the long-lasting effects, and explores strategies for addressing current and future needs. Areas of impact include study integrity, regulatory and industry issues, and participant engagement. Proposed strategies for addressing these challenges include analytic methods to deal with large degrees of missing data and development of patient-centered, user-friendly, remote data collection tools and assessments. We also highlight the importance of maintaining participant well-being as a …

Hippocampal Cholinergic Function And Exploratory Behavior Throughout Development In A Genetic Mouse Model Of Alzheimer’S Disease, Ashley Andrea Blackwell

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Dementia of the Alzheimer’s type is the most common form of dementia, affecting millions of people worldwide. Specific genetic mutations increase Alzheimer’s disease-related neuropathology and cognitive impairments. Deficits are observed in spatial orientation throughout the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, including wandering behavior or becoming lost in a familiar environment. Dementia of the Alzheimer’s type patients also exhibit disruptions in radial optic flow, which underlies self-movement cue processing. Currently, no treatments exist for Alzheimer’s disease. Genetic mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease have been developed to investigate the disease onset and progression and, further, to evaluate potential therapies and behavioral assessments. As …

Phosphorylation Of A K Channel By Pkc Regulates The Excitability Of Primary Sensory Neurons And Pain Signaling, Tyler D. Alexander, Lianteng Zhi, Phd, Tanziyah Muqeem, Manuel Covarrubias, Md, Phd

Phase 1

Introduction: Voltage-gated potassium channels (Kvs) play an important role in the termination of neuronal action potentials. Kv3.4 is one of many types of Kv channels, found throughout the human body – including in the axon terminals of dorsal root ganglia neurons. Kv3.4 channels are categorized as A-type currents and have prominent fast-inactivation that has been shown to be phosphorylation dependent. It is hypothesized that following spinal cord injury (SCI), Kv3.4 channels become hyperphosphorylated and their expression reduced – leading to an increase in nociceptive signaling.

Methods: We used embryonic DRG neurons, transfected with one of four types of viral …

The Application Of Machine Learning Models In The Concussion Diagnosis Process, Sujit Subhash

Masters Theses

“Concussions represent a growing health concern and are challenging to diagnose and manage. Roughly four million concussions are diagnosed every year in the United States. Although research into the application of advanced metrics such as neuroimages and blood biomarkers has shown promise, they are yet to be implemented at a clinical level due to cost and reliability concerns. Therefore, concussion diagnosis is still reliant on clinical evaluations of symptoms, balance, and neurocognitive status and function. The lack of a universal threshold on these assessments makes the diagnosis process entirely reliant on a physician’s interpretation of these assessment scores. This study …

Spatial Memory And Executive Functioning In The Goto-Kakizaki Rat Model Of Diabetes, Lorielle Dietze

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a disease that adversely affects cognitive function in areas extending to memory and executive functioning. The Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rat provides a model of type 2 diabetes that can illustrate the mechanisms by which this disease works. The present study compared hyperglycaemic GK rats and age-matched Wistar rats in the Morris water maze to assess spatial memory, and in a perceptual attentional set-shifting task to assess putative prefrontal-dependent executive functioning. Results showed there was no difference in path length during training trials, however, GK and Wistar rats differed in the path length travelled in the target …

Novel Random Forest Methods And Algorithms For Autism Spectrum Disorders Research, Afrooz Jahedi

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Random Forest (RF) is a flexible, easy to use machine learning algorithm that was proposed by Leo Breiman in 2001 for building a predictor ensemble with a set of decision trees that grow in randomly selected subspaces of data. Its superior prediction accuracy has made it the most used algorithms in the machine learning field. In this dissertation, we use the random forest as the main building block for creating a proximity matrix for multivariate matching and diagnostic classification problems that are used for autism research (as an exemplary application). In observational studies, matching is used to optimize the balance …

Measuring The Effects Of Lobinaline-N-Bioxide (419) On Alcohol Consumption, Nicotine Locomotor Sensitization, And Conditioned Place Preference In Mice And Rats, Cocanut M. Suhail

Theses and Dissertations--Medical Sciences

Objective: Novel drug 419 was examined to see the effect it has in vivo mice and rats on alcohol consumption, nicotine locomotor sensitization, and conditioned place preference (CPP) models regarding behavioral tests on dopamine transporter activity.

Methods: Mice and rats were used to see how they react to the drug 419 and control vehicle, in each of the models. The animals were assessed to pre- and post- drug administration of novel drug 419. We examined each model to see the association between how drug 419 will help with treating drug abuse.

Results: We found that in alcohol consumption model the …